Sensitive: Anti-Communists Hack Wenzhou TV

As of August 1, the following search terms were blocked on Sina Weibo (not including the “search for user” function).

WenzhouTV Hacked: The city’s Friday evening news included unexpected anti-Communist messaging, apparently hacked into viewer’s set-top boxes. The messages lingered after the station went blank. From Tea Leaf Nation:

One message, emblazoned across the top of the screen, declared, “Damn the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpieces: China Central Television, Peoples’ Daily” — the first a broadcaster, the latter a newspaper, and both generally acknowledged to toe the party line — as well as “the Propaganda Department and the State Radio and Film Administration,” both agencies that exercise government censorship. Another message, placed in the lower left-hand corner of the screen, called for the release of Wang Bingzhang, a pro-democracy activist who has been detained in China since 2003, and declared that “the Communist bandits are the real criminals.” Yet another message read, “Friends, do not cooperate with Communist devils.”

[…] The group whose logo appears on the hacked TV screen calls itself the Anti-Communist Party Hackers; on Twitter, they have claimed to have successfully attacked many other Communist Party websites. In an email response after the attack, the group denied responsibility, claiming instead that it was the work of “friendly forces” in the fight against the Communist Party. [Source]

Liu Xiaobo (bottom right) and other dissidents made a surprise appearance on Wenzhou TV tonight. (韩福东/Weibo)

Confused viewers took to Weibo, but their comments have been deleted en masse. Deleted posts are available on FreeWeibo. The censors’ reaction answers questions from December 2012, when netizens wondered whether CCTV’s airing of the banned film V forVendettasignaled greater media freedoms to come.

机顶盒＋被黑: set-top box + be hacked

机顶盒＋黑客: set-top box + hacker

机顶盒＋入侵: set-top box + infiltrate

有线电视＋被黑: cable TV + be hacked

有线电视＋黑客: cable TV + hacker

有线电视＋入侵: cable TV + infiltrate

温州电视＋被黑: Wenzhou TV + be hacked

温州电视＋黑客: Wenzhou TV + hacker

温州电视＋入侵: Wenzhou TV + infiltrate

Zhou Yongkang: See the July 31 post for more blocked search terms related to the investigation of former Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang.

All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information.